1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to security systems for portable articles and, more particularly, to a security system that has a response assembly that is triggered through the repositioning of an object that is being monitored.
2. Background Art
The proliferation of portable consumer electronic articles has presented an ongoing challenge to those in the security industry. Myriad products are currently offered and continue to be developed in communications, data management, music playing, etc. The product displays in establishments that offer these products continue to grow in size. In the highly competitive electronics industry, marketing has dictated a “hands on” method of offering the products to end users. Consumers have in recent years become accustomed to going into “mega-” electronics stores and literally having at their finger tips most existing electronic products. The sheer volume of electronic products now displayed in a typical store, by itself, presents a challenge for those responsible for security. In any one store, many hundreds of these products may be simultaneously displayed for handling and operation by consumers. At peak hours, and particularly during high volume buying seasons, the challenge of employees and security personnel to prevent theft becomes daunting.
The electronics industry continues to offer a range of products with different price tags and capabilities to the retail stores for presentation and sale to end users. Individual displays commonly have these products tethered to a support. In the simplest state, the tethers are mechanical cables which have a somewhat limited capability. Electronic systems offer a higher level of security but involve a more significant financial investment on the part of the store owner. With the large volume of items that are displayed, and tethers having a substantial length to allow convenient inspection by a potential purchaser, wire management problems arise.
The assignee herein developed, and has successfully commercially sold, a product that addresses a number of the problems discussed above. More specifically, this product is shown in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 37,590. This product affords an electronic monitoring capability while addressing wire management problems by retracting a tether/conductive cord into a coiled state in a housing. The product being monitored is operatively engaged with the system by using any of a number of different connectors at the end of the conductive element. A reel is normally spring-biased in one rotational direction to retrieve the conductive element into the housing and, in so doing, draw the associated article that is being monitored towards the housing into a display position. By grasping the article and exerting a force thereon, the conductive cord can be withdrawn from the housing against the spring bias force exerted on the reel.
While the above-described product has been highly commercially successful, it has one limitation that is inherent, not to its design, but rather to the high volume of products displayed at point of purchase. Typically, this type of system has an associated alarm that is activated in the event that the conductive cord is severed and/or the connector is separated from the article that is being monitored. This alarm in many system setups is the primary alert to the fact that there has been a breach. Unfortunately, in large operations, even if the system is properly set up and the alarm triggered during a breach, it may still be possible for the individual causing the breach to abscond with the article, particularly in a crowd, without being identified. This problem is aggravated by the fact that often these systems are not properly set up by personnel, as a result of which false alarms may be triggered. This may cause employees and security personnel to either ignore the signals or shut the systems down to avoid annoyance to existing potential consumers.
Thus, to provide greater security, it would be desirable to have some type of backup that complements the above-described security system. For example, video cameras may allow real time monitoring or monitoring at the conclusion of a predetermined time period, such as at the conclusion of the business day. The difficulty with monitoring using cameras is that a person or persons assigned to do the monitoring must keep track of potentially hundreds of these different security systems over a substantial areal region within the establishment. Even in a crowded commercial establishment with hundreds of displayed items, at any one time, there may be only a limited number of the articles that are actually being physically handled by potential consumers. However, in spite of this, security personnel are required to observe all of the articles, even though they are not being handled and in any immediate danger of being taken without authorization. As a result, this conventional backup security monitoring approach may be difficult to use and impractical, particularly when crowds of potential consumers are present.
As the electronics industry evolves, the products become increasingly smaller, yet with more capabilities, and more expensive. At the same time, the level of sophistication of thieves continues to rise. Accordingly, business establishments are facing an ever increasing challenge in terms of implementing security systems and controlling costs. The value of a security system must be evaluated factoring in its initial cost, its maintenance, and cost of personnel involved in setting up and monitoring, as well as its overall effectiveness. The industry continues to seek out more effective ways of monitoring portable consumer articles through systems that are financially feasible when evaluated in terms of their effectiveness.